HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW THAT POWERFUL TOOL ON YOUR DESK, your personal computer, came to be? Any ideas? Good, I will share that story with you. Today Facebook reminded me of a blog I posted on this day in February 2014 titled "My Friend, Thank You For Asking! - More Reminiscing!"
That 2014 blog was the result of a post I did on the TimesDaily Religion Forum, remembering the 2010 death of a computer industry giant who had left the industry to become a small town medical doctor. In 2010, the computer industry lost a major player - yet one that most people who buy personal computers today have never heard of and would not even recognize his name, Ed Roberts.
Ed was a co-founder and president of a company inAlbuquerque named MITS. I worked for MITS, as did Bill Gates and Paul Allen who were our programming staff. And, that seemingly insignificant beginning - helped put the personal computer and laptop on your desk. The MITS Altair computer virtually created the retail personal computer and hobby computer industries.
The following 2014 dialogue transpired because I shared a blog about Ed Roberts, his passing, and his funeral in a small town in Georgia.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the TimesDaily Religion Forum discussion titled "Christians Against Creationism" begun by an atheist Friend, another Forum Friend tells us, "And lest we forget, our resident troll (Bill Gray) is the product of the Alabama school system which, in his day, was rated last or near last in the nation. And he went on to get most of his education, not in an institution of higher learning but in the Air Force. Ahem. Later he worked primarily in sales - Ahem. Computer Field Engineer, indeed! Only those with a degree in engineering are entitled to use that title."
And, I answered his comments by offering a post on the Religion Forum. When I posted it on Facebook and in my e-mail Friends Ministry eNewsletter, I titled it "A Wee Bit Of Reminiscing!" In that post I share some of the highlights of my nearly fifty year career in the computer industry. And, I closed that post with:
Well, my Friend, being the determined soul he is, responds with:
My Friend, thank you for asking. I am happy we can chat a wee bit more. Your complaints seems to be twofold: (1) that many of the events I mentioned happened in the 1960s, and (2) that I never include myself in those photos I shared with "A Wee Bit Of Reminiscing!"
So, okay, I will get include myself. You are right, many of the events I recalled did happen in the 1960s - since I began my career in the commercial computer industry in August 1958 after leaving the Air Force. And, you are correct that the events surrounding my time with the company MITS, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the founding of the computer store and later the computer chain called the Byte Shop, all did happen in the mid-1970s.
In 2010, the co-founder and president of MITS, Ed Roberts, passed away. At that time, I wrote my thoughts, memories, and condolences on his Obituary Guest Book. That Guest Book entry triggered a chain of e-mail correspondences which was totally unexpected. First, I received the following e-mail from Ed Roberts' MITS co-founder, Forrest Mims, who left the company to follow other endeavors, but remained a consultant:
Forrest Mims attached this e-mail from his brother which is mentioned in his e-mail above:
In a follow-up e-mail to Forrest Mims, I wrote:
Several days later, I received this e-mail from BBC Radio in London:
In response, I wrote to Martin Williams at BBC Radio:
So, my Forum Friend, now that we have my personal involvement established - let's take a look at the early years of the microcomputer industry:
And, from the PC Museum (Personal Computer Museum, located in Brantford, Ontario, Canada) web site:
On the personal web site of MITS co-founders Forrest Mims we find:
One last Blog Site which I will suggest you read, but to have some brevity (okay, laugh) I have only included a short excerpt:
So, back to today and my Friend on the TimesDaily Religion forum. My Friend, I am not on the Religion Forum to blow my own horn or to brag about my career in the computer industry. But, when you make a claim that I have not been telling the truth, that goes to lessening my credibility - which is key to my sharing the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with folks. And, I cannot allow that misconception to stand.
Yes, I was blessed to have spent my life's work in the fledgling computer industry which was effectively birthed with the Manhattan Project in World War 2 - and in 1958 when I left the Air Force and entered the work force, it was still on its early legs. At that time the only companies selling digital computers were RCA, GE, IBM, Sperry, and Burroughs (Electrodata). I was fortunate to be hired by Burroughs to work on their vacuum tube based B-220 computer system.
And, over the years, I have been blessed to have worked on computers which employed vacuum tube technology, transistor technology, integrated circuit (IC) technology, large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) technology, and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) technology.
Each of these steps leading toward all of us having these high powered PC or Apple computers in our homes and offices - making it possible for folks like us to go on the computer-based worldwide internet and have discussions such as this with folks around the world.
Yes, I have been blessed to have been there almost from the beginning. And, today, I have my computer and my computer-based Christian ministry, an effective tool for sharing God's Word; while sitting in the comfort of my home and having a cup of coffee. Yes, I am truly blessed.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
That 2014 blog was the result of a post I did on the TimesDaily Religion Forum, remembering the 2010 death of a computer industry giant who had left the industry to become a small town medical doctor. In 2010, the computer industry lost a major player - yet one that most people who buy personal computers today have never heard of and would not even recognize his name, Ed Roberts.
Ed was a co-founder and president of a company inAlbuquerque named MITS. I worked for MITS, as did Bill Gates and Paul Allen who were our programming staff. And, that seemingly insignificant beginning - helped put the personal computer and laptop on your desk. The MITS Altair computer virtually created the retail personal computer and hobby computer industries.
The following 2014 dialogue transpired because I shared a blog about Ed Roberts, his passing, and his funeral in a small town in Georgia.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In the TimesDaily Religion Forum discussion titled "Christians Against Creationism" begun by an atheist Friend, another Forum Friend tells us, "And lest we forget, our resident troll (Bill Gray) is the product of the Alabama school system which, in his day, was rated last or near last in the nation. And he went on to get most of his education, not in an institution of higher learning but in the Air Force. Ahem. Later he worked primarily in sales - Ahem. Computer Field Engineer, indeed! Only those with a degree in engineering are entitled to use that title."
And, I answered his comments by offering a post on the Religion Forum. When I posted it on Facebook and in my e-mail Friends Ministry eNewsletter, I titled it "A Wee Bit Of Reminiscing!" In that post I share some of the highlights of my nearly fifty year career in the computer industry. And, I closed that post with:
My Friend, I do hope you have enjoyed these highlights of my career. Let me know when you want to chat more. I have so many stories to share -- and they are all true.
Well, my Friend, being the determined soul he is, responds with:
All of those photos he (Bill) posted are readily available on the web. Identical! And, of course, the biographies of the gentlemen he speaks of are available. I just finished reading "Jobs" (Steve Jobs) and I was amazed that he didn't even mention our resident troll. And did you ever notice that he (Bill) has never posted a photo of himself with any of these computers?
All this time he is talking (about) the 1960's and, in fact, Paul Terrell, who he speaks so fondly of, didn't start that Byte Shop until December of 1975. So much for the truth.
My Friend, thank you for asking. I am happy we can chat a wee bit more. Your complaints seems to be twofold: (1) that many of the events I mentioned happened in the 1960s, and (2) that I never include myself in those photos I shared with "A Wee Bit Of Reminiscing!"
So, okay, I will get include myself. You are right, many of the events I recalled did happen in the 1960s - since I began my career in the commercial computer industry in August 1958 after leaving the Air Force. And, you are correct that the events surrounding my time with the company MITS, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the founding of the computer store and later the computer chain called the Byte Shop, all did happen in the mid-1970s.
In 2010, the co-founder and president of MITS, Ed Roberts, passed away. At that time, I wrote my thoughts, memories, and condolences on his Obituary Guest Book. That Guest Book entry triggered a chain of e-mail correspondences which was totally unexpected. First, I received the following e-mail from Ed Roberts' MITS co-founder, Forrest Mims, who left the company to follow other endeavors, but remained a consultant:
Subject: Your tribute to Ed Roberts Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2010 22:11:51 -0400
From: Forrest Mims To: Bill Gray
Dear Bill,
My brother sent me your wonderful tribute to Ed Roberts. I am very familiar with some of the details, but knew nothing about some of the MITS franchise information you provided. You are spot on about Ed's contribution and how he has received so little recognition.
My wife Minnie and I are enroute to Ed's service. We left Texas Friday evening and are now in Montgomery, Alabama.
I hope you will look at the photo of Ed, Paul Allen, Bob Zaller, and me on the biography page of my web site: www.forrestmims.org. Bob and I partnered with Ed and Stan Cagle to found MITS in the fall of 1969. I wrote the first Altair user's manual as a freelancer, having left MITS in 1970 to become a writer.
Thanks again for your tribute to one of history's greats - and my best friend.
Best regards,
Forrest
Forrest M. Mims III
www.forrestmims.org
Forrest Mims attached this e-mail from his brother which is mentioned in his e-mail above:
Subject: Forrest: Significant Historical Post on Ed Roberts' Funeral Page Sent: Sat, Apr 3, 2010 4:09 pm
From: TEXICANICA@xxxx.com To: FMims@xxxx.com
Hello, Forrest . . . I sent you an earlier e-mail with a link to Ed Roberts' Death Notice and Funeral Details. Here is the content of a significant historical post by Bill Gray. You might be able to use some of this or interview Bill Gray.
April 02, 2010
My sincere condolence to the family of Ed Roberts. My name is Bill Gray and I worked for Ed at MITS in the mid-1970s. To me, he was the entrepreneur who saw a niche in the microcomputer market no one else noticed (the old Heathkit build-it-yourself approach) grabbed the ball and ran with it; scoring the winning touchdown.
This was a time before PC computers, before the Apple computer, before disk operating systems, before CRT displays, and all the nice little gadgets we all take for granted today. Yet, this was a time when many people wanted to know more about this amazing little device called the microprocessor. And, Ed Roberts help satisfy that hunger people had to know more about the microprocessors, microcomputers, and how they could use them.
Many people may not realize that Ed Roberts was very instrumental in the start-up of the Retail Computers stores we see in all communities today. And, his product influence was there for the beginning of Apple Computer.
Ed Roberts came up with the idea to outfit a large luxury RV as a computer showroom and sent it around the country giving Microcomputer Seminars. That year, he drove the RV right into the Anaheim Convention Center during the Fall Joint Computer Conference and parked it in the MITS booth. As a matter of fact, it became the MITS booth. And, it created excitement.
At that time, there was only one computer store; a mom and pop store in Los Angeles. These Microcomputer Seminars, which were Ed's brainchild, were a big hit. I would fly to different cities, meet the Traveling RV Computer Showroom - and we would present Seminars in local hotels.
During one eventful week, I presented two nights of Microcomputer Seminars at the Hyatt Hotel in Palo Alto, where I met an old friend, Paul Terrell. Paul was so impressed with the large audiences we had - that he signed up to sell the Altair computers in Northern California.
A month later, Paul opened the the first Byte Shop computer store in Mountain View, California, to sell the Altair in a retail and hobby environment. Then, a short time later, he opened a second store in Palo Alto with his brother, then another in Oregon with another brother - eventually building the first franchise computer store chain, the Byte Shop, into 250 stores nationwide.
His store in Mountain View became a focal point for computer hobbyists and Paul's involvement in a local hobby computer club helped to sell his Altair products. Through this connection, he met Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs - and we know they went on to found Apple Computer.
In the 1970s, the microprocessor exploded on the scene - and Ed Roberts, with his entrepreneurial skills helped turn this into the tsunami which has become the PC and Apple flood of computers in every home and office around the world. As I said, few people know the extent of Ed Robert's influence in starting the computer phenomenon we take for granted today.
Ed Roberts' name should be up there in the history books with all the giants who have created the computer society we have today - for his entrepreneurial spirit and drive played a large role in this societal phenomenon. Talk to folks today and ask them if they know Ed Roberts - and virtually all would say no. Tell them that he was instrumental in putting those computers into their homes and offices - and they will be shocked. Ed Roberts is most certainly the most unsung hero of our computer society today.
Thank you, Ed. And, thank you for allowing me to be a small cog in that movement of the 1970s computer tsunami you started.
Once again, my sincere condolence to all of Ed Roberts family and friend.
May God bless and comfort you in your loss,
Bill Gray
In a follow-up e-mail to Forrest Mims, I wrote:
Subject: THANK YOU! -- Re: Your Tribute To Ed Roberts Sent: Sat, Apr 3, 2010 11:47 pm
From: Bill Gray To: Forrest M. Mims III
Hi Forrest, It was a pleasure hearing from you. Reading on your web site sure brought back a lot of memories. Like me, you have been around the computer industry a long time. In the Air Force, I was a Radar/Fire Control tech - so, when I got out the natural progression was into the relatively new digital computer industry.
In 1958, I went to work at Burroughs Corporation (old ElectroData) in Pasadena, in the test lab for their second computer, the Burroughs B-220, which was a vacuum tube computer running operations in milliseconds, had a 100 line-per-minute IBM 407 Tab Machine as the line printer, an ASR-35 Teletype as the console printer, punched card I/O, and sold for $4,000,000. Later, I went into Field Engineering and was stationed at the Naval Supply Depot in Norfolk, then in the Burroughs' Washington DC office during the Kennedy Inaugural and years.
As a Burroughs Field Engineer, working with Melpar Corporation, I helped install a large computer system (my Burroughs computer seemed small compared to the full Melpar system) at the U.S. Air Force SAC HQ in Omaha. (Side note: The room holding the full Melpar system was huge, seeming to be about the size of a football field.)
A few years later, I joined Ramo Wooldridge and helped set up a test lab for the first MilSpec Minicomputer, the AN/YUK-1 - designed to fit down the hole of a ship or submarine. Fast forward a year, and I went to the shipyard in Philadelphia to install one of them on board the USNS Kingsport, the Navy's first Satellite Communication Ship - a converted Liberty hull ship with a huge antenna radome (53 foot) which made it look like a toy ship with a golf ball sitting on top. This ship was being outfitted to be the control vessel for the Syncom Satellite - which carried the first satellite telephone conversation between President Kennedy and the Prime Minister of another country. The AN/YUK-1 controlled the antenna.
Later, I worked for Scientific Data Systems as part of their initial Field Engineering corps - working on the SDS 930 and 9300 computer systems - and I helped with the SDS 940 timeshare computer which was developed at UC Berkeley. In 1964, I installed the first SDS 940, for Tom O'Rourke at the newly founded Tymshare Corporation, the company which brought the innovation of time-sharing computer services via telephone networks to the world.
Then, I went into sales for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in their Palo Alto office - and eventually, in the mid-1970s, ended up with MITS, Ed Roberts, Bill Gates, and Paul Allen as their California connection.
My wife jokingly asks me, "Why is it that you have worked with so many in the computer industry who have become rich - and you did not?" I just tell her, "I am where God wants me to be right now. So, I am rich. And, I have you and five beautiful grandchildren. Who could be richer?"
Forest, thank you for contacting me. Maybe we can continue to communicate when you have the time.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day, Bill
Several days later, I received this e-mail from BBC Radio in London:
Subject: BBC Radio Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 17:38:59 +0100
From: "Martin Williams-BBC7"
To: Bill Gray
Dear Mr Gray,
I'm trying to put together an obituary feature for BBC Radio in the UK about Ed Roberts, who has sadly died. I understand you knew him? I wonder if you might have a few minutes for a quick chat? Please let me know your number and I'll give you a call.
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards
Martin Williams
Assistant Producer
Last Word, BBC Radio 4
Room 6015, Broadcasting House
020 7765 5196
martin.williams.01@bbc.co.uk
In response, I wrote to Martin Williams at BBC Radio:
Subject: Re: BBC Radio Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:33:36 -0700
From: Bill Gray To: Martin Williams-BBC7
Hi Martin,
I would be happy to talk with you. When is a good time for you? The best time for me is between 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM California time. My telephone number is 951-XXX-XXXX
Another gentleman you would want to talk with is Forrest M. Mims III. Forrest was a co-founder of MITS with Ed Roberts. His e-mail address is: fmims@xxxx.com
Forrest's web site: http://www.forrestmims.org/biography.html
Please let me know when you would like to chat.
Thank you and God bless,
Bill Gray
So, my Forum Friend, now that we have my personal involvement established - let's take a look at the early years of the microcomputer industry:
MITS Altair 8800 computer - The Obsolete Technology Website
http://oldcomputers.net/altair.html
The Altair 8800 from Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) of Albuquerque, NM, is considered by many to be the first "personal computer" - a computer that is easily affordable and obtainable.
At this point in time, there were no computer or electronic stores to buy your own computer. The only options were to build your own system from plans and designs published or sold in magazines and other sources. It was the individual owner's responsibility to find and acquire all the parts necessary to assemble it.
The Altair 8800, was first featured in the January and February 1975 editions of Popular Electronics magazine, although this early design bore little resemblance to the finalized version released just a few months later. Up until this point, MITS was known for selling calculators and model rocket components (telemetry).
Bill Gates and Paul Allen (upon reading the Popular Electronics article) saw an opportunity and wrote Altair BASIC, a true programming language. Monte Davidoff contributed math routines, including the floating-point routines for Altair 4K BASIC. Altair BASIC was very expensive at $500, but only $75 when purchased with an Altair computer, an interface board, and 8K of memory.
Soon after, Gates and Allen formed their own company, Microsoft, and sold Altair BASIC as their first product.
Why was the computer named "Altair"? The name was decided upon by Popular Electronics magazines, but there are two versions of the story:In January 2005, John McVeigh wrote me a message confirming the second account, and reminiscing on the good old days at Popular Electronics!
- The first and most popular, that the name came from Star Trek, the TV series, is apparently false, but it sounds good. The story is, that Les Solomon, the (then) technical director of Popular Electronics magazine (and a great story teller), asked his daughter about a name, and she suggested "Altair," because "that's where the Enterprise is going in this episode." She was supposedly watching Star Trek, the science fiction TV series. Altair was mentioned in only one Star Trek episode: "Amok Time," episode 34 - original air date: 9/16/1967.
- Alternately, Forrest M. Mims III states in the November 1984 issue of Creative Computing that the Altair was originally going to be named the PE-8 (Popular Electronics 8-bit), but Les Solomon thought this name to be rather dull. So Les, Alexander Burawa (associate editor), and John McVeigh (technical editor) decided that, "It's a stellar event, so let's name it after a star." McVeigh suggested "Altair." Actually, there really is a star called Altair. It's the 11th brightest star in the sky.
This was the true beginning to the computer age!
In September 1975, the very first issue of BYTE magazine was issued. On the cover they proudly state: "Computers: The worlds greatest toy!".
Even though MITS developed additional and more advanced models, and shipped thousands of Altair computer systems, the company was sold to Pertec in 1976. Pertec continued producing Altairs, but did a very poor job of it, and within a few year, the Altair line of computers disappeared into history.
Since no keyboard or monitor was cheaply available, users initially had to flip switches on the front panel, writing their own programs in machine language, and watching the LEDs on the front panel light up in response to their commands.
Due to the flexibility of the S-100 bus, numerous expansion cards were soon released, including a keyboard interface, teletype, monitor, printer, and data storage, adding greatly to the Altair's usefulness.
And, from the PC Museum (Personal Computer Museum, located in Brantford, Ontario, Canada) web site:
The First PCs - The Altair 8800
http://pcmuseum.tripod.com/altair1.htm
The Altair 8800 helped start the Microcomputer Revolution. In December 1974, Popular Electronics publishes an article by MITS announcing the Altair 8800 computer for US$439 in kit form. It uses the Intel 8080 processor. The Altair pictured on the cover of the magazine is actually a mock-up, as an actual computer was not available. Railway Express loses Ed Robert's only prototype Altair computer, en route to New York for review and photography for publishing by Popular Electronics. Lauren Solomon, 12 year old daughter of Les Solomon, publisher of Popular Electronics, suggests the name "Altair" for Ed Robert's new microcomputer. Altair was the name of where Star Trek's Enterprise was going that night.
In April 1975, MITS delivers the first generally-available Altair 8800, sold for US$375 with 1KB memory. At that time personal computers were called "hobbyist", "small-business", or "micro" computers. The "Altair bus" used a connector with 100 pins and became known as the S-100 bus as more manufacturers adopted it. The Altair featured a BASIC written by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. MITS was Microsoft's first customer.
On the personal web site of MITS co-founders Forrest Mims we find:
Forrest M. Mims III
http://www.forrestmims.org/biography.html
Highlights:
Co-founded MITS, Inc. in 1969. The workbench in the photo above is where the circuits that led to the first MITS products were developed (including model rocket light flasher and telemetry transmitter and the Popular Electronics Opticom infrared communicator and infrared laser system). A larger photo is at www.sunandsky.org. On that web site, Forrest shares:
MITS was founded to develop and sell model rocketry light flashers and telemetry transmitters. Stan and I left MITS to pursue other interests, and I continued working with Ed on a freelance basis to write manuals for some MITS products. The company went on to introduce Ed Roberts' Altair 8800, the microcomputer that launched the personal computer age.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates moved to Albuquerque to develop software for the Altair and to found Microsoft. The Altair Ed gave me in return for writing the Altair operator's manual has been on display at the Smithsonian Institution for more than 16 years.
The Altair story: Early days at MITS. The Altair 8800 was designed by H. Edward Roberts and introduced by MITS in 1975. Please see article below. In 1975, Forrest wrote The Altair 8800 Operator’s Manual, the manual for the world’s first personal computer. While he was writing the Altair manual, a couple of young programmers named Bill Gates and Paul Allen were creating a version of BASIC for the Altair. (That was the start of a company called Microsoft.) Thus, Forrest holds the honor of having written the very first book about personal computers.
Today, Forrest simultaneously carries out a variety of scientific and technical projects. He recently worked with the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin to compare measurements of atmospheric water vapor made from satellites and the surface. From 2000-2006 he was a co-principal investigator for GLOBE, a network of 8000 schools in 83 countries that involves students in scientific research projects.
MITS founders Ed Roberts (seated) and (left to right) Forrest Mims and Bob Zaller and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen at the opening of the STARTUP Gallery at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (16 Nov 2006). In January 2011 the STARTUP Gallery was dedicated to the memory of Ed Roberts, who died in April 2010. Photograph by Minnie Chavez Mims. http://www.forrestmims.org/biography.html
PHOTO FROM FORREST MIMS' WEB SITE BIOGRAPHY
One last Blog Site which I will suggest you read, but to have some brevity (okay, laugh) I have only included a short excerpt:
A Night at the Museum Where Old Computers Refuse to Die
http://davidbunnell.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-night-at-museum-where-old-computers.html
If there is a corner of heaven reserved for computer geeks, it must be very similar to Paul Allen’s Living Computer Museum, located in a 3-story warehouse south of downtown Seattle.
One wonderful evening in April, I found myself milling about this museum with 150 technology pioneers, old-timers, game-changers, the people who laid the foundation of today’s digital reality, at a festive reception hosted by Paul Allen and his co-founder at Microsoft, Bill Gates.
So, back to today and my Friend on the TimesDaily Religion forum. My Friend, I am not on the Religion Forum to blow my own horn or to brag about my career in the computer industry. But, when you make a claim that I have not been telling the truth, that goes to lessening my credibility - which is key to my sharing the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with folks. And, I cannot allow that misconception to stand.
Yes, I was blessed to have spent my life's work in the fledgling computer industry which was effectively birthed with the Manhattan Project in World War 2 - and in 1958 when I left the Air Force and entered the work force, it was still on its early legs. At that time the only companies selling digital computers were RCA, GE, IBM, Sperry, and Burroughs (Electrodata). I was fortunate to be hired by Burroughs to work on their vacuum tube based B-220 computer system.
And, over the years, I have been blessed to have worked on computers which employed vacuum tube technology, transistor technology, integrated circuit (IC) technology, large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) technology, and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) technology.
Each of these steps leading toward all of us having these high powered PC or Apple computers in our homes and offices - making it possible for folks like us to go on the computer-based worldwide internet and have discussions such as this with folks around the world.
Yes, I have been blessed to have been there almost from the beginning. And, today, I have my computer and my computer-based Christian ministry, an effective tool for sharing God's Word; while sitting in the comfort of my home and having a cup of coffee. Yes, I am truly blessed.
And, I am happy to say that my early boss, the innovative mind which birthed the embryonic ideas to bring us our personal computers we have today, Ed Roberts, was able to live out his dream also. After selling MITS to Pertec, Ed moved to Georgia and later went back to school to fulfill his dream of becoming a medical doctor. He lived the rest of his life as local small town family doctor.
In late 1977 Roberts returned to rural Georgia and bought a large farm in Wheeler County where he had often visited his grandparents' home in his youth. He had a non-compete agreement with Pertec covering hardware products, so he became a gentleman farmer and started a software company.
His age could have thwarted his dream of becoming a medical doctor, but nearby Mercer University started a medical school in 1982. Roberts was in the first class and graduated with an M.D. in 1986. He did his residency in internal medicine and in 1988 established a practice in the small town of Cochran, Georgia.
In 2009, Dr. Roberts was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honor society, based on his dual accomplishment of developer of the first personal computer and his devotion to rural medicine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roberts_(computer_engineer))
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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